It's full moon, but they have me out in the Forbidden Forest rather than the shack. We run, Sirius is a Dog, James a stag, Peter a rat rested on James's head. Me, the wolf. It looks as though they're chasing after me, like I've escaped. I stop, them still running at me, and I turn around, my teeth bared. No longer are James, Sirius and Peter in their animagus form, they are human, standing pink and vulnerable before my wolf. I leap, tearing into Peter's throat, dead. The same again to James but he doesn't die, he lies gurgling and choking on his blood on the forest floor. I approach Sirius, mouth dripping with blood and foam. He whimpers "No Moony" But I don't understand him "please Moony" I growl, I don't understand. All I know, is that I'm hungry, ravenously hungry. I get closer, Sirius falls back and I pin him to the ground, my jaw unhinged. "Don't Moony" My Jaws around his neck "Please Moony" about to bite down "I love you Moony" and a strangled cry, I stand alone in the forest and devour their corpses. Hands begin to shake at my shoulders and-
"Moony? You alright?" asked Sirius, his voice groggy and hoarse
"Wha'? Yeah, go back t'bed" Remus grumbled, shrugging Sirius's hands off his shoulders
"You were growling and whining in your sleep, is all"
"I was?"
"Yep. Bad dream?" Sirius sat on the bed, Remus shrugged, half nodded "Aww, poor Moony"
"It was just a dream, no need to feel sorry for me"
"What happened? House elves ate your skin? Fisher boiled your pet bunny?" Remus heard the smirk on his voice and punched him softly
"Git. Nothing like that, I barely even remember"
"It was house elves wasn't it?"
"No! I don't have nightmares about House elves"
"Whatever you say Moony" Sirius climbed under the covers "but just in case, I'll stay here and keep you safe from the scary elves"
*
"You're joking!" exclaimed Frank, as he perched himself on the rattling desk the class was gathered around. Sirius shook his head and replied
"Sorry Frank-"
"Professor Longbottom!" Frank corrected, Sirius rolled his eyes and continued
"right, whatever, anyway, we've never tackled a Boggart. Montague, the guy we had before Professor Shields, left half way through third year"
"I remember that, after the accident with that hybrid Hinkypunk" said Frank, eyes looking up into his head as he remembered. Sirius frowned at the second interruption.
"anyway, then Shields came along and just assumed we'd done Boggarts, and we were almost finished the dark creatures topic by then, so it never came up" Sirius shrugged brushed his hair out of his eyes and grinned at Valerie Taylor, the fair girl who Evans and Alice sat with, who had been quite blatantly staring, Snape tutted at him and Sirius flashed his preferred obscene hand gesture.
"This is insane! Getting rid of Boggarts is usually on your practical exam... or at least the theory appears on the written paper" he sighed and rubbed his temples "I thought this was just going to be a revision lesson I'm going to have to teach you this from scratch"
"Most of us know the theory sir" said Lily "We just haven't had the chance to fight one yet" she smiled at Frank, her and Alice had taken to being overly supportive of Frank, to the point that it was patronising.
"Oh, so you'd all be prepared to fight one today?" he asked, hopping up from the rattling desk to grab his wand from his cloak pocket, which was hung haphazardly from the back of his chair. There was a murmur of agreement in the class. "Excellent!" Frank pulled the class's register from his own desk, which was crushed into the corner of the classroom. He ran a finger down the piece of parchment.
"Oh, first, for those that don't know, the Boggart takes the form of your biggest fear. The best way to defeat a Boggart is with laughter, so you have to picture a way to make your biggest fear look stupid. When you do that, and you have to picture that clearly, you cast the Riddikulus charm. Any volunteers?" Frank asked. Sirius looked around, no one appeared to be willing, so he lazily raised his hand. Frank smiled and beckoned him forward and Sirius pulled his wand from his pocket, and stepped toward the shaking desk, Frank hastily unlocked the desk's large drawer and ran back, leaving Sirius standing on his own, circled by the class. The class jumped as the desk drawer banged open, Sirius swallowed, his throat dry. The Boggart had taken the form of Remus being dragged away by ministry officials, he was dirty and hurt and too weak to fight them off, the Boggart had also added Sirius into this, Boggart Sirius appeared to be restrained as well, though he grabbed desperately to save Remus, who was still being dragged ever more roughly away by ministry officials. Remus, the real Remus that is, blushed next to him.
"What the fuck" sneered Snape snidely "You're not even trying to hide it are you Black?"
"Hide what?" asked Frank, the look on his face indicating that he just realised how unprofessional that question was
"Why, whatever do you mean Snivellus?" said Sirius coolly "Riddikulus!" Suddenly the ministry officials found themselves in full drag, while Boggart Sirius was dressed as a pirate. Boggart Remus, now free from his restraints was dressed like a damsel in distress and, after he and Boggart Sirius performed rather elaborate dance routine, Boggart Sirius stuck the two ministry officials with what appeared to be a wooden sword. There was a thunderous shriek of laughter from the class, Sirius smiled at his wonderfully ludicrous creation and stepped back. Frank grabbed the nearest student, Valerie Taylor, and threw her forward. She faltered, the Boggart morphed into a huge snarling pit bull, Sirius was suddenly reminded of his mother. Valerie gasped and sputtered
"R-Riddikulus!" The Pit bull was suddenly wearing a fluffy pink bow round it's neck and was having it's leg humped by a tiny Chihuahua. The class, including Frank, cackled, the pit bull looked panicked.
"Potter, go!" He shouted, the Pitt Bull took the form of a broken broom.
"You've got to be kidding" giggled Sirius
"What? It would kill me if my broom b-b-b" James's face dropped "Riddikulus!" The broom was repaired and was now being ridden by Snape, who was struggling to stay on the broom. Everyone but Snape, Frank and Evans laughed.
"That's 10 points from Gryffindor Potter" snapped Frank. James wiped a tear from his eye
"So worth it"
"Go on Lily" Frank called, giving her and encouraging nudge forward. The Boggart became a middle-aged couple and a girl, a little older than they were, with blonde hair, lying dead in the middle of the floor, the dark mark hanging threateningly above them. Evans whimpered and scrunched her eyes closed
"I can't think of a way to make that look funny, Professor"
"Perfectly understandable love, Alice, you go instead" Alice stumbled forward past Evans, who looked unusually pale, the Boggart changing into a tall dark woman with snow white skin. She hissed, revealing long sharp white teeth, a vampire, she lunged forward and Alice squeaked
"Riddikulus!" The beautiful vampire grew a huge Snape-ish nose and was suddenly afflicted with a bad case of acne. There was a titter from the class, who were still recovering from the sight of the dead people on the floor, people who Sirius assumed must have been Evans's family.
"Lupin, go on!" called Frank, Remus shot a panicked glance at Frank, his mouth forming an O in realisation. He gave Remus a discreet kick in the shins and he fell forward. "What happened there Lupin?" said Frank overly shocked. The man was a bloody terrible liar, he sighed exaggeratedly "Wasting too much time, miss Greengrass, you instead"
*
"Lupin? Could you hang back for a moment?" Asked Frank as the students filtered out. Remus waved his friends goodbye, assuring them he'd meet them in the Great Hall. "Close the door behind you as well"
"What is it Professor?"
"Sorry I kicked you mate. But I think we both knew if you went up against the Boggart..."
"It would have had something to do with my condition. Thanks for realising Frank... oops, sorry, Professor Longbottom... it would have been... well... the obvious... and I'm very grateful because... Snape..."
"What about him?"
"I think he knows, or at least he has a suspicion. He tried to make me use a silver knife in potions a couple of days ago" Remus felt his pulse speed up with the memory.
"Hmm..." Frank frowned "I'll have a word with Professor Slughorn about him"
"No! Don't... I'm sure Slughorn would sort it out but... well... he's not the most subtle person in the world, is he?"
"True... alright... you have any more trouble with him, come and have a word with me" Frank smiled, Remus smiled back. He found it amazing someone who came from such a long line of purebloods would be so accepting.
"Thank you Frank"
"I just thought... was that what Black's Boggart was all about? Someone finding out what you were and you being dragged off by the ministry?"
"Yes" Remus blushed again "I assume so"
"You two must be... close" Frank cocked his eyebrows in thought and Remus was about to leave the room, before Frank noticed the shade of crimson he'd just turned
"Oh Lupin!... before you go" Frank fumbled in his robe pocket "The Head Girl finally got the prefect patrolling rotation sorted. Here's your copy" he handed Remus a crisp piece of parchment.
"Thanks again" Remus smiled as he left the classroom, he stopped outside it to read his rotation.
Prefect
name: Lupin, Remus John.
Year: 5th
House:
Gryffindor
Monday
– Fifth
floor corridor, 21:00 – 23:00
Partnered
–
Stonewall, Delphini Marine, Slytherin, 6th
year
Wednesday
– Astronomy
tower, 21:00- 23:00,
Partnered-
Fisher, Gabriel Thomas, Ravenclaw, 6th
year
Friday
– Library
corridor, 22:00 – 00:00
Partnered-
Albert, Orestus, Hufflepuff, 5th
year
Sunday
– Gryffindor
tower surrounding area, 21:00 – 23:00,
Partnered
- Evans,
Lily Guinevere, Gryffindor, 5th
year
Remus groaned. Of any of the Ravenclaws they could have picked to do prefect duty with him! It was bad enough he was going to have to patrol with Delphini Stonewall, who was a bitch even by Slytherin standards. Remus had never met her, but barely a week went by without him hearing "Delphini stole such and such's boyfriend" "Delphini said this about whoever" "Delphini did this to who-gives-a-fuck". At least he had Sundays with Lily to look forward to, and Orestus Albert was a nice guy, someone who Remus had always wanted to get to know better. He frowned at Fisher's name on the page again and trudged down to the Great Hall, bumping into a tall thin girl, with fine strawberry blonde hair
"B-bloody hell, sorry" she mumbled, her eyes, which were on the floor, flicked up for a moment "Remus!"
"Katrina! Christ it's been a while! How's the NEWT DADA going?"
"Outstandingly" she grinned, rather uncharacteristically, and clapped him on the back "Thanks to you"
*
"Ha! Evans's middle name is Guinevere" giggled Sirius
"I think that's a nice name" pouted James
"Oh, Remus has been lumbered with Delphini Stonewall" grimaced Peter
"She's fit" shrugged James
"If you like your girls pure evil" Sirius shook his head
"She's a bit... pointy looking for my tastes" Said Peter
"lucky bastard gets to spend two hours with Lily on Sunday night! That's not fair! Even if he does have to hang round with Delphini"
"Who's Orestus Albert?" asked Sirius
"Hufflepuff, dark hair, a bit chubby" James shrugged "Nothing special, you wouldn't notice him in a crowd"
"What the fuck!" growled Sirius. Peter jumped at his sudden snap
"What? What's wrong"
"Gabriel Fisher... Gabriel fucking Fisher"
"so? Nice guy, clever, friends with Remus"
"Nice guy, clever, very handsome and fancies Remus" Sirius pouted "Practically in love with him" he scowled
"Pardon? Fisher? Gabriel Fisher is bent?" snorted James
"Bisexual, apparently" Sirius sighed "Remus told me he stood watching him in the library for twenty minutes last week"
"That's really weird" Said Peter screwing his face up "What did Remus do?
"Said something that translated loosely as, sod off I'm taken" Sirius said proudly, giving a smug smirk at Fisher's name on Remus's timetable. "Serves him right as well. Shouldn't be trying to steal my Remus"
"I hardly think Remus is the type that allows himself to be stolen" sniggered James
"He's not" said Remus, who had just re-entered the dormitory after his shower "Have you three been snooping in my things again?"
"Maybe..." said Sirius, annoyance at Fisher draining away at the sight of a wet Remus with a cottony towel hanging from his hip bones. Remus blushed as he jumped onto his bed and drew the hangings around him to get dressed. "Why do you always do that?" asked Sirius
"Do what?" questioned Remus from behind his hangings, a soft rustling as he put on his clothes
"Get changed in your bed"
"Because we aren't all exhibitionists Sirius"
"Don't roll your eyes at me"
"I didn't roll my eyes"
"I heard you roll them"
"You two are like an old married couple, you know that?" said James, who definitely did roll his eyes as he left the room "I'm going to go tidy up some of the measurements on the map, you coming?"
"I'll come" said Peter merrily following James
"You up for it Padfoot?"
"Nah, it was me who gave you half the dodgy measurements in the first place"
"Suit yourself, Moony, you coming?"
"Can't, I've got some reading to do to prepare for my tutoring. McGonagall says she's drawing up classes for me and I've got my first patrol in a bout twenty minutes so I can't do it later" replied Remus, immerging from his bed fully dressed
"I repeat, suit yourself. C'mon Wormtail, let's go" James strode from the dorm, quill, ink, wand and half drawn map in hand, Peter trotting excitedly behind him
"What are you reading? Transfiguration or DADA?" asked Sirius
"Transfiguration, I'm not as good at that"
"Moony, you are such a geek" giggled Sirius
"We can't all be as effortlessly talented as you are" Remus sighed, pulling an advanced transfiguration textbook from his trunk. Sirius had never really thought of himself as effortlessly talented, but when he thought about it, he supposed Remus was right. All those tests he got O's on without going within fifty feet of a text book, all the times he was first to perform the charm or transfigure the animal or make the potion without something exploding.
"Yeah well... so are you"
"I am not" he laughed
"You
are! You get brilliant marks"
"But I have to study, very very
hard for them"
"What about DADA, you're better at that than me and Prongs without even trying"
"That's one lesson" He said lightly, opening up his transfiguration book and plopping onto the bed "I don't care Sirius, it's a fact of life that some people are just brilliant while others aren't"
"But you are brilliant Moony!"
"I never said I wasn't... just not as much as you. Not anywhere near as much"
"Shut up Moony, you're brilliant, just as much as I am, or James is or Pe... well not so much Peter but-"
"Just drop it, will you Sirius? I'm trying to read"
"Well...
fine... I can read to you know"
"Wonderful"
"Hmm..." Sirius scanned the book littered area around and under Remus's bed, he picked up the one Remus had been reading for a while now. It had a muggle woman on the cover, she wasn't moving, her lips were bright red and her tits were huge and squeezed into some muggle costume from a bygone era, she had a burly muggle mans arm wrapped around her waist "what the fuck is this?" he sniggered
"What the fuck is what?" asked Remus without looking away from his text book. Sirius flipped to the page that Remus had his bookmark/sock placed and read aloud
" "Oh Moanna" Bentley sighed "How can you love an old sea dog like me?" Moanna shuffled, her breasts round and pink in Bentley's strong rough piratee hands" Remus's eyes darted upward, he sprung from his bed and made a grab for the book. Sirius dodged him, cackled and continued reading
"Simple Bentley" she sighed erotically "I love you because you're you, and you are a sexy pirate with a huge" Sirius couldn't stop himself from laughing "...Aww Moony!" Sirius giggled "And all this time I've been thinking you've been reading great master works of fiction!" Remus blushed
"I... I don't usually read stuff like this... it just... it caught my eye and I started reading and... It's like literary crack Sirius. Once you start something like this you can't stop till you're finished"
"You're unnecessarily embarrassed by this Moony" Sirius said, replacing the bookmark/sock and placing the book back down on the bedside table "When do your little tutees start stealing you again"
"After Christmas, I'm not sure why McGonagall's taking longer to give them to me this time but..." Remus shrugged "there you go"
"That woman gives you too much bloody work. Tutoring two subjects and making you prefect... wonder what her last bloody slave died of"
"I was thinking of asking her to let me drop transfiguration tutoring. I bet she could get Alice to take the job over, she's top of the class at the moment... would've been you had you not decided to release McGonagall's frogs into Snape's dorm last week... I still don't even know how you got the password"
"I charmed it out of Delilah Dirge"
"Oh bloody hell Sirius!"
"Well I had a box full of stolen frogs, what was I supposed to do with them? Then it hit me and I realised I didn't have the password and Delilah was so close and she'd been batting her eyes at me all the way through breakfast..." Remus cut him off with a half sigh half growl "C'mon Moony, you know I've only got eyes for you"
"Well you know, sometimes it's bloody hard to believe"
"Remus... just because I sometimes flirt with girls... you know it's just for fun don't you?"
"How would you feel if I started flipping my hair and winking at Fisher?"
I'd break his fucking neck, the I'd beat you to death with his corpse
"Wouldn't mind"
"Really? You honestly wouldn't care? At all?" Remus's face was blank, his eyes were wide and questioning
"Nope. 'cause I know you wouldn't mean it, so I wouldn't care. Just like you shouldn't care when I flirt with girls"
"Oh... well..." Remus cleared his throat "You don't care then"
"Nope"
"Thanks Sirius. Good to know" he looked at his watch "Well, looks like it's patrol time. I'll say hi to Fisher from you then, shall I?"
"Do what you like"
"And since you don't care, I'll maybe tell him that he looks sexy tonight?"
"Fine with me"
"Oh, is it really? Well if it's fine with you, maybe I should tell him that our relationship is quite obviously a casual one"
"Whatever"
"Tell you what, considering you care so little, I'll just drag him to the top of the astronomy tower and fuck him on Sinistra's desk, how's about that?"
"Absolutely fine" said Sirius calmly, admittedly through gritted teeth
"Wonderful. I hope you have as wonderful and evening as I'm about to Sirius" snapped Remus, striding out of the room heavily, slamming the door shut behind him. Sirius waited until he heard Remus reach the bottom of the stairs. He growled and kicked at his bed, too proud to go after Remus.
*
BastardBastardBastardBastardBastardBastardBastardBastardBastardBastardBastardBastardBastardBastard
Thought Remus as he stomped his way up to the astronomy tower.
Doesn't fucking care, does he not? He'll see how much he fucking cares after this
Initially, Remus had felt more hurt than angry. But now hurt and anger had mixed into one big huge mess of negative, vengeful emotion. Remus knew he was reacting in a rather ridiculous, immature manner, but Sirius had chosen to hurt his pride far too close after full moon, the after affects of which, were beginning to linger longer and longer. He wanted to believe Sirius hadn't meant what he had said but... he couldn't... he just couldn't. Bastard.
God knows how many girls he's done that to since... God knows what else he's been doing with girls... Trust me. He asked me to trust him just a few days ago... bastard! I asked him over a month ago to stop it as well! Argh! Bastard! Bastard! Fucking bastard!
And soon the anger shrank again, as Remus was never angry for long, and a Sickly knot found its way into his stomach.
He doesn't care.
He saw that familiar flash of blonde hair and waved politely, trying to regain at least some of his composure.
"Hey Fisher, how's things"
"They're not bad" he said shyly, pushing at his glasses "And how are things with you?"
"They're not too good"
"Thought you looked a bit miserable What's wrong? Is it Black?" He asked, quite unashamedly hopeful
"No... well... Yeah... he's... he's just being a bit of a twat at the moment"
"If you ever need a shoulder to cry on Remus. I'm here"
"Thanks... listen, Fisher I-"
"Remus... do me a favour"
"What?"
"Call me Gabriel would you?"
"Why?"
asked Remus, Fisher snorted
"It's my name"
"Oh, alright then... well, listen Gabriel I... I'm sorry I was so... harsh in the library a few weeks ago"
"I understand... I was watching you after all... even I can admit that's some fucking creepy shit... I'm not going to lie again and say I'm over you... but... I'm not going to stalk you or anything. I just want to reiterate that, if anything ever goes wrong with you and Black... I'm here" Remus nodded and they stayed silent for a while as they walked up and down the tower's corridor and round it's stair case. They stopped on the balcony outside the classroom where the telescopes were set up. Leaning against the stone barrier, Fisher turned to him and said "Are you going to tell me what that shit Black did to piss you off then?"
"Oh... I found out he got into the Slytherin common room by flirting the password out of a girl... it doesn't sound that bad but... I... he does it a lot... and I've asked him not to do it before and I..." Remus sighed heavily "It drives me crazy"
"Twat" said Fisher coolly "You know, if it were me" he stepped closer to Remus, who was still too busy wallowing in anger and self pity to notice "who was going out with you" he stepped closer again, Remus was looking at the grass far below him "I wouldn't look at anyone else... girl or boy... a veela could come dancing up at me, naked as the day she was born and I wouldn't look at her... not if I knew it would upset you" Remus laughed, unaware of how close Fisher was, about to scold him as he turned his head, he was not met with an expanse of space, Fisher standing a few feet away from him, but was instead met by a pair of lips. A pair of lips which were soft and careful and had just sworn they wouldn't look at anything else if it would upset Remus. Lips which were faithful, loyal, romantic and clever. Soft, wet and delicate, eager to please. They became deeper and faster, but lost none of their softness of romance. They broke apart for air. Remus's stomach knotted. He just kissed Fisher. Fisher who, for all his skill and tenderness, he wasn't particularly interested in kissing. Fisher, who was not Sirius.
And Sirius, who was Sirius... who he loved
Who he'd just cheated on
Oh fuck.
Fisher smiled and moved in close again.
"I'm sorry Gabriel... I can't do this" He backed away, back into the class room calling "Sorry... I am so sorry" as he left.
*
Sirius slapped himself after half an hour of stroppy furniture based violence. He was being a prat. A big one. He shook his head and pulled on his cloak, heading up to the astronomy tower. He jogged along, rehearsing and apology in his head, which mostly involved things like, "I'm a tit" "Of course I'd care if you fucked Fisher" and "I won't so much as look at a girl again". He jogged around the astronomy tower's surrounding corridors looking for Remus, no sign of him. So he went to the tower itself, he ran up the staircase into the classroom, where they were nowhere to be found. Sirius frowned and perched on one of the desks, when he heard the sound of a slightly gravelly, deep voice, with a Yorkshire lilt from the balcony, which opened at a arch into the classroom. Remus.
"and I've asked him not to do it before and I..." he sighed heavily "It drives me crazy" Sirius got up quietly from the desk, and stood at the arch, making sure he could see them but that he was covered by shadow. He heard a slightly lower voice speak, smoother, posher and more brusque than the last. Fucking Fisher.
"Twat... You know, if it were me" he stepped closer to Remus, who was staring at the floor. Sirius felt his chest tighten "who was going out with you" he stepped closer again, Remus still had his eyes in downward. And Sirius was staring daggers at the handsome blonde boy who was advancing on his Remus "I wouldn't look at anyone else... girl or boy... a veela could come dancing up at me, naked as the day she was born and I wouldn't look at her... not if I knew it would upset you" Sirius grimaced. But Remus appeared to have found Fisher's stupid joke fairly amusing. He laughed, and turned his head. Sirius saw the look of shock on Remus's face when he saw how close Fucking Fisher had gotten. Then Fucking Fisher leaned even fucking closer. And Fucking Remus didn't stop him. Then their mouths were upon each other and still Remus did nothing. Sirius felt a painful jolt run through him. He looked away and buried his head in his hands. He ran, not wanting to know how long this kiss was going to last or what they were going to do afterward. The tightness in his chest was replaced with a hollow ache, his eyes stung. Everything stung and everything ached, and everything was hollow.
A/N: Yay! Managed one last chapter before Paris! But seriously, after this none for a little over a week :P And on a cliff hanger. I am a bastard
Remember to review people. Less than 10 last time. Made me cry tears on the inside of my heart! On the Brightside, my daily hit traffic has only dropped below 100 twice this month, so thanks for that! But still! Review! Review!
C'mon... :) you know you want tooooo!
